Milford Thrives Early Childhood Collaborative Members

Milford Thrives Early Childhood Collaborative

We are a coalition of cross-sector partners with a shared interest in supporting the healthy development of our community’s youngest members and their families.

We are committed to working together to support Milford’s youngest children (pre-birth to five years) and their families so they can thrive.

This first year, the Milford Thrives Early Childhood Collaborative will:

Identify local and regional early childhood (EC) and family support resources, supports, and services;
Develop a better understanding of the resources and services available and increase referrals, serving as EC Ambassadors for Milford families;
Research areas of priority need and how to best engage families with young children (via a formal needs assessment); and
Determine priority actions and solutions the Collaborative can take to meet Milford families’ needs.

“We envision Milford to be a place where parents feel supported and all young children are provided with strong early childhood foundations so they can reach their fullest potential.”

This Milford Thrives EC Collaborative member center provides quick contact information for members, simple referral instructions to member services, and an overview of each member’s current EC services and resources. Ultimately, it will help support our goal to become “Early Childhood Ambassadors” for Milford families with young children.

This member page provides us with a central location to share meeting minutes and presentations, committee reports and working documents, updates between meetings, and training opportunities. If you have new information, links or pdfs you’d like to share with partner members, just email us. If non-members are looking for more information on the Collaborative, please refer them to the Collaborative web page, or feel free to have them contact Joelle.

The Milford Thrives EC Collaborative meets monthly via Zoom on the third Thursday of each month, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Next Meeting: June 17th 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. ** Prioritize Collaborative’s work for 2021-2022
At our May 20th meeting, we continued review and discussions of our parent/family Needs Assessment results as well as Provider Survey results.
At our April 15th meeting we reviewed the parent/caregiver survey and focus group results. Here is a link to the meeting minutes.
The March 18th Meeting featured Cassie Yackley, PsyD, Center for Trauma Responsive Practice, and Valerie Robinson of GNMH who led a discussion on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Trauma-Responsive Care, and Child Parent Psychotherapy, an evidence-based practice for our youngest children (birth to 5) and their families. Here is a link to the presentation/discussion. (Along with some background information on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) for your reference as well. For referrals to Greater Nashua Mental Health services, including CPP, have families call: 603-889-6147 and ask for “Intake.”
The February 18th meeting featured a discussion on Home Visiting and Parent/Family Support led by our colleagues at Waypoint Family Resource Center; it’s easy to refer parents. For Home Visiting, simply have them contact Carolyn George at Waypoint: 603-518-4390; email. For the various parent education and support offerings, share this brochure with families (referral/registration information included). Our Needs Assessment consultant, Pear Associates, also presented their discovery work. Here is a final copy of the Discovery report. Here are the February Meeting Minutes
January 2021 Collaborative Meeting: Meeting Minutes.
November 2020 Collaborative Meeting: Meeting Minutes.
October 2020 Collaborative Meeting
September 2020 Collaborative Meeting

Here is a pdf of Waypoint Family Resource Center’s Parent education & support group brochure to share with Milford parents and caregivers.
Circle of Support pdf to share * Virtual Parent Group Friday evenings currently hosted on Zoom by Waypoint NH
Know of a grandparent or relative raising young children? Waypoint Family Resource Center offers a Kinship Navigator program to help grandparents navigate parenting and locate services in Milford/Greater Nashua. Here is a pdf of the Kinship Navigator Flyer to share.
Additional Parent Resources to come: As we’ve discussed in our Collaborative meetings, based on our parent survey and focus group results we will develop additional informational resources for our parents/families about the early childhood resources available to them, including a revamped website. Stay tuned…
Meanwhile, feel free to direct Milford families and parents to the Milford Thrives Facebook page which features spotlights on you, our partners, the early childhood services and programs available; timely info on fun activities and offerings; and child development and parenting information.

Milford Parent/Caregiver Needs Assessment results . 15% of Milford families with children under 6 participated in the survey. Thanks for everyone’s support.
Collaborative Member Interest Survey Results

Follow us on Facebook and keep us posted on your agency’s new offerings! References for youth-family-serving agencies can be found below. The Milford Thrives Facebook page and pareting/kids website focus on resources and information for parents/caregivers.
NH Department of Education’s Office of Student Wellness Toolkits can be found at this website. TA and toolkits can be found here on NH students with Incarcerated Caregivers; Suicide Prevention; Equity and other topics.
New report released from the NH Council on Thriving Children highlighting early childhood progress in NH: 2020 Year in Review, A Celebration of Early Childhood in the Granite State.

COLLABORATIVE MEMBER PROFILES

Members are listed alphabetically by last name. Having difficulty finding someone? Use the search feature at the top of the page: you can search by name, early childhood service, key word, or organization.

Or, feel free to contact Joelle with your questions.

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JOELLE MARTIN

Milford Thrives